Finding Your Place
by magickmoons
Summary: Cam deals with his disappointment at finding out SG-1 has moved on


**Title:** Finding Your Place  
**Characters/Pairings:** Cam  
**Notes/Warnings:** written for writerverse Quick Fic prompts: inside Pandora's Box and abandonment. Falls early in _Avalon_, after everyone's declined to come back to the team but before Vala shows up.

* * *

Cam sighed as he let himself into his temporary quarters and closed the door behind him. He stretched slowly, trying to work out the muscle tension that had been growing since his meeting with General Landry. Over a year of pain and work and sheer stubbornness when hope diminished. When he'd heard through the grapevine that SG-1 was in no hurry to fill the vacancy left when Jack O'Neill was promoted, he knew what it was he wanted in return, what he was working for. And so he chose to walk right into Pandora's Box, as Kinsey had once called it.

He sank onto the narrow bed, relishing the relief of pressure along his spine. He laid back, searching for a comfortable position and stared at the drab walls. Taking Jackson up on his offer of his apartment was looking better and better, even though it meant the good doctor was a definite no in regards to SG-1.

It had been a long couple of days - Jackson, Teal'c, and Sam: three swings, three strikes. Cam didn't have any right to feel abandoned by them. It wasn't like they heard he was coming on board and left en masse... he hoped. Actually, he didn't know too much about how and when they had withdrawn from the team, from the SGC.

He knew he couldn't stop Jackson from going to Atlantis. General O'Neill had refused that transfer often enough in the past; if it was happening now, there was no string Cam could pull that would change it. And Teal'c had a whole 'birth of a nation' thing going on. But Sam... that was the one that really stung. After years of moving up through the ranks, keeping in touch via phone calls and letters, finally getting the chance to work with her again and she said no.

He pushed himself up to a sitting position and grabbed his phone, dialed the number automatically and listened to the ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ma." Just the sound of her voice lifted the black cloud around him a little. He could picture her sitting in their little kitchen. Dinner would be cleared away by now and she'd be sipping a small cup of tea, maybe be reading through a magazine before getting ready for bed.

"Oh, Cam. I didn't think I'd be hearing from you so soon. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, Ma. Just been a long couple of days."

"Oh, you think you have problems, Cameron. We opened the County Fair today and it's just been one disaster after another. Maeve Pearson made her cinnamon buns for the Directors' Breakfast Buffet. You remember how everybody loves her cinnamon buns." Cam sure did. Even now, his mouth was watering at just the memory of the sweet, doughy confection.

"Well," his mother continued. "She mixed up her sugar and her salt. You should have seen everyone's faces! Lola Mae had to spend an hour talking Maeve out of the ladies' room after that."

Cam suppressed a snort of laughter; the county fair was serious business. "I'm sorry, Ma. That must have been awful."

"And then, someone left the gate open before the 4-H Swine Show and we had a time of it rounding up all those pigs. Kids were crying, pigs were squealing. It reminds me of the time when you were in high school and all those goats got out." She tsked. "They really should be more careful with those locks, don't you think, Cameron?"

"Yes, ma'am," he answered dutifully, hoping he couldn't see the grin on his face over the phone.

"Well, I'm sorry, Cam, but I've got to go get some sleep. I'm judging the Vegetable Show first thing in the morning."

"Yeah, okay, Ma. Get some rest. I'll talk to you soon."

Cam hung up the phone and laid back down with a smile on his face. It wasn't over, not by a long shot. Okay, Jackson might be a lost cause, but Cam wasn't giving up while he was still in this galaxy. Things at the SGC, and especially regarding SG-1, tended to surprise people. He just needed to step up his game.

But first things first, he thought, turning onto his side. He definitely needed to get his own place.

~fin~


End file.
